Colorado wildlife officials on Thursday were moving ahead with an emergency operation to bait deer with food to try to draw them away from a highway – a project reflecting worries about deer survival after heavy snowfall and a spike in vehicles hitting deer along the highway that cuts through critical habitat.

The Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials say they’re motivated in part by a recent spike in vehicles killing deer along U.S. Highway 50 near Gunnison.

A CPW crew planned to seek help from Gunnison River Valley residents and scheduled a meeting Thursday night. CPW is focusing on areas around Gunnison where deer have been gathering along and crossing the highway.

“We are conducting this operation to move them away from the roadway for both human and wildlife safety,” agency spokeswoman Lauren Truitt said.

“The meeting will be to inform the public of what we are doing and how we are monitoring the situation and weather. We will also be asking the public to sign up for volunteer time, equipment, access and other resources in case they are needed.”

The baiting with an alfalfa mix is intended to get deer to move away from traffic and, depending on snow levels, could be converted to emergency feeding if weather conditions worsen.

Heavy snow blanketed the Gunnison Basin during the first week of January with about 50 inches accumulating along highway areas that traditionally served as winter habitat for mule deer. Most of the deer in the basin spend winters in this area.

Deer and elk are have evolved to endure harsh winters. They draw on stored fat to survive storms.

But disturbances in winter habitat cause deer to burn more fat. CPW officials have been urging drivers to slow down, watch out for deer, and avoid stops along roadways that lead to people or pets approaching deer. It’s illegal to feed deer. And state biologists warn that feeding deer the wrong foods at the wrong time can kill them.

State biologists in 2008 conducted an emergency feeding operation in the Gunnison Valley that ran from January through April after more than 100 inches of snow fell, impeding access to natural foraging areas.

Around Colorado, wildlife biologists increasingly have raised concern about deer populations. The statewide population of mule deer has fallen 110,000 short of the 560,000 deer target that wildlife managers deem optimal.

Bruce Finley covers environment issues, the land air and water struggles shaping Colorado and the West. Finley grew up in Colorado, graduated from Stanford, then earned masters degrees in international relations as a Fulbright scholar in Britain and in journalism at Northwestern. He is also a lawyer and previously handled international news with on-site reporting in 40 countries.

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